Revenue going to content & data from voice big worry: Pieters

Raising concerns over over-the-top (OTT) players eating into voice revenues of telcos, former Vodafone India head Marten Pieters today said it could be "fatal" for the industry.
"OTT is a serious worry. Eighty-five per cent of revenue of operators in India is voice, if that goes away, its fatal. Revenues are moving away to content and data from voice," Pieters said during the CEOs round-table organised by industry body COAI.
Net neutrality implies equal treatment be accorded to all Internet traffic and no priority should be given to any person or entity or company based on payment, which is seen as discriminatory.

There has been intense debate on Net neutrality following telecom major Airtel decision to charge separately for Internet-based phone calls in December, which it had to later withdraw.
In April, the company launched 'Airtel Zero' platform, which flared up the entire debate on Net Neutrality, also engulfing Facebook's internet.Org initiative that has Reliance Communications as a partner in India.
Both Facebook and Airtel claim that their platforms do not violate the Net Neutrality principle and they are actually aimed at expanding Internet access in India.

Pieters said the industry is not denying the reality but it should be given some time to adjust to the changing scenario.

"We are not denying the new reality but we are just saying give us some more time to adjust. This discussion needs to be pondered. Should operators be worried, yes because this is a capital intensive industry," he added.
Bharti Airtel Joint MD and CEO (India and South Asia) Gopal Vittal said the industry wants a level playing field and same rules should be applied for same set of services.
He though said there should not be a licencing regime for OTT services.
"The key thing is to have a proper discourse. I think the discourse has to be objective and meaningful, it can't be shrill din...First and foremost I want to clarify we believe that OTT services should not be licenced, let me make that absolutely clear," Vittal said.

He said the reason they believe OTT players should not be licenced is because the last thing they would want is to stifle innovation that is happening in the OTT space.
"Growth of data services is caused by innovation happening in the OTT space and that is why we love OTT players because that is what drives our data growth. However, the only thing to nuances is that their basic voice services that are being offered all we are saying is subject everybody to same rules," he added.